Private Snafu

In the final years of World War II, Colonel Frank Capra, along with Ted Geisel (Dr. Suess) created a character named Private Snafu (Snafu in military terms stands for "Situation Normal, All F***ed Up"). Private Snafu was intended to be shown to all branches of the armed forces and provide entertainment as well as inform soldiers to remain weary of their efforts. Snafu was always used to show soldiers how not to act, or what not to do. There are twenty-eight Snafu shorts released between 1943 and 1945. You can get an idea of what the U.S. Military found important to educate soldiers about just by some of the titles of "Snafu Shorts". In the short "Three Brothers" by Friz Freleng, Private Snafu is assigned the task of organizing boots. Snafu becomes bored and longs for a job like one his brothers hold. He is then visited by Technical Fairy, First Class, who shows him his brother Trafu is then shown caring for carrier pigeons and brother Fabur is the "victim" for training attack dogs. After seeing his brothers jobs, Snafu becomes delighted for his job. The short was meant to show soldiers that every job is important and that there could be another job that might be worse.


The fear of spies in the U.S. at the time was high and can be seen in the shortcalled "Spies", Snafu has learned a secret. He claims to be able to keep this secret and has every intention to do so. However, slowly throughout the short, the secret comes out. The enemies have been listening and pass his secret on to their leader, Hitler. Snafu, on his way to Africa by ship, watches as the Nazis close in and end up firing a torpedo at him. He then ends up in hell, questioning who had told his secret. The devil (Hitler) then reveals it was he who had given away his secret. The lesson from this short is not to speak to anyone about any military plans.



Source

|-Kelly-|